1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a touch panel allowing a larger number of input operations over a wide area, in which an additional input section from which input operations can be executed may be formed in addition to a screen indicating input section from which input operations can be executed according to indications on a screen.
2. Background Art
Touch panels that have conventionally been used in electronic notepads, personal computers, and the like include ones of analog resistance film type. In a touch panel of this type as shown in FIG. 11, ordinarily, two conductive panels 4, 5 having a pair of parallel bus bars 43, 53 and a transparent electrode 42, 52 formed between the bus bars 43, 53 on one surface of a transparent insulating base 41, 51 are made to face each other and are stuck together with use of a circumferential insulating adhesive layer 6 so that the bus bars 43 and 53 are arranged rectangularly. Each of the conductive panels 4 and 5 has a routing circuit 44, 54 connected to the bus bars.
This touch panel is provided on a screen of an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), a CRT (Cathode-Ray Tube), and the like, and is pressed by a finger, a pen or the like under indications displayed on the screen that can be seen through the transparent insulating bases 41 and 51 and the transparent electrodes 42 and 52 with the screen located on their rear side, so that continuity between the transparent electrodes 42 and 52 that are normally insulated from each other by a small space is made for position input.
The bus bars 43 and 53 and the routing circuits 44 and 54 are not transparent, and are therefore hidden behind a picture-frame-like housing or the like placed on a front surface of the touch panel that is placed on the screen. In order that a larger number of input operations may be made with one display operation on the screen, recently, an area in which the bus bars 43, 53 and the routing circuit 44, 54 are formed has been made as small as possible (narrow picture frame) and an area in which the transparent electrodes face each other has been enlarged.
The enlargement of the area in which the transparent electrodes face each other, however, has a limitation and there is a necessity for new measures to make it possible to form additional input sections from which input operations can be executed in addition to a screen indicating input section from which input operations can be executed according to indications on the screen and to make a larger number of input operations possible.
An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned issues and to provide a touch panel allowing a larger number of input operations over a wide area, in which an additional input section from which input operations can be executed may be formed in addition to a screen indicating input section from which input operations can be executed according to indications on a screen.